"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

His blog is called “Modicum of Insanity” (formerly “Letters From a Young American”) and he’s a student at Patrick Henry College. Two weeks ago, he sent me an e-mail to explain that he just got credentialed for CPAC — his first time at the conference — and to ask if I had any suggestions. Among the advice I gave him was this:

Sex at CPAC is strongly discouraged. Enjoy the conference, enjoy the parties, meet everybody you can meet, but don’t try to “score.” The resemblance to Mardi Gras or Spring Break is (mostly) superficial. “Networking within the movement” is not a synonym for “trying to get jiggy with that cute chick I met at the reception.”

And also this:

A cocktail party in D.C. is not like a kegger with your college buddies. Yes, people consume Adult Beverages at D.C. cocktail parties, but not in the collegiate spirit of, “Hey, dude, let’s get totally hammered.” . . . Getting drunk and obnoxious is frowned upon in D.C. if only because, hey, it’s politics and most of these a–holes are obnoxious enough when they’re sober.

My pre-CPAC advice to Cody is kind of interesting, in light of the post-CPAC commentaries offered today by Erick Erickson and Melissa Clouthier, both of whom express concern that too many young people at the conference were getting hammered and trying to get jiggy. This is actually something that has worried me at least since 2007, the year when an especially rowdy bash hosted by the Maine College Republicans got shut down.

Do we worry too much about these kids? I don’t know. While some of them were obviously enjoying the Adult Beverages with tremendous gusto, it is impossible to estimate how much “getting jiggy” was going on. Probably a lot less than us old folks might fear, given the 3-to-1 male-to-female ratio amongst the college-age contingent. And probably not enough to worry about an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea.

Unless you were paryting with the Maine CRs, in which case you might be in serious danger. Just sayin’ . . .

Nevertheless, while emphasizing my responsible agreement with Melissa’s argument, I also understand that not every girl who goes out clubbing in high heels and a skintight dress with a daring display of décolletage is a hussy, a floozy or a tramp. Or a Maine CR.

However unwise or indecorous it may be to follow the fashion trend toward bare-as-you-dare styles, in some sense it’s like makeup and jewelry: Items that were once frowned upon as whorish, tacky and/or ostentatious are now acceptably fashionable. (Am I the only one who remembers when hoop earrings were considered kinda racy?) Lamenting fashion trends is an enduring trend unto itself and — wow, I’m really giving away my Old Fogey status this time — I’m also old enough to remember when traditionalists frowned upon women wearing slacks or jeans. So I want to be responsible without being overly judgmental.

Anyway, my young friend Cody had a totally excellent CPAC, not least because I helped him get media access to a Rick Santorum meet-and-greet Friday. It was pretty simple, really: I arrived about five minutes before the event was supposed to begin, and found a huge crowd lined up to get in. Cody was in the huge crowd with some of his friends.

So I went around and found a side door that was unlocked, talked briefly to the Santorum campaign staff, then went back out into the crowd, grabbed Cody and said, “Come with me.” Bing, bang, boom — in like Flynn — and I introduced him to the campaign staff so that they knew he was OK. You can read his report at his blog.

OK, I admit, Moody’s awesome skilz might have been a minor factor in his subsequent success, but this kid Cody’s got some skilz, too. Check out his post about Sarah Palin at CPAC, wherein he shows that he’s already picked up the trick of getting a photo in a media scrum: Hold your camera up high and point down, then click, click, click — you may shoot a gazillion shots and only get two or three usable ones, but what the heck? Nobody but you ever sees the blurry discards.

For some strange reason, I never got a photo of Cody with his charming girlfriend, who has curly brown hair and beautiful eyes. She wasn’t wearing a tube top or stiletto heels, so I guess Melissa approves.

Also, Cody didn’t write about our awesome lunch with two of my American Spectator colleagues, including associate editor Jim Antle. Cody might fit in at the Spectator, although I worry that our esteemed Editor-in-Chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is probably more in agreement with Dan Riehl on the issue of hotties in tube tops. NTTAWWT.

I tend to find at CPAC a lot of the younger people tend to call themselves Libertarian ie: anything goes, legalize drugs etc.. They also tend to be Ron Paul’s followers, however, the level of alcohol and debauchery I am sure is 1/10th of that at a Democrat function, so being an older lady I say, what the hell, have fun in life but remember in 2012 it ends up on Facebook

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I read Melissa’s article and was puzzled – where were all these scantily-clad conservative temptresses of which she wrote? 99.99% of the young women I saw at CPAC on Saturday were conservatively dressed in skirts and heels that wouldn’t have been out of place in the most hidebound corporate environment, to say nothing of demure blouses that concealed the cleavage. (The remaining .01% were working in T-shirts and jeans.) Did I miss some serious Rule 5 action by not making it to the wild & crazy CPAC party scene?

Melissa, I believe, was talking about the way some of the young ladies were dressed when going out to clubs and parties on Thursday and Friday nights.

Like you, I saw only a comparative handful (or should I say “eyeful”?) of girls in the super-slinky dresses *during* the conference itself. But their taste in evening wear was in some cases rather daring.